Visit the collection
Handle objects from our collection with a guided Collections Store experience
Sessions are held at 6-7pm on the first Wednesday of every month and each person attending must book a place.
We’re very excited to welcome visitors inside our Collections Store to handle objects from our Handling Collection, guided by our passionate and knowledgeable collections team. Our one hour, free of charge experience is a rare opportunity to delve into half a century of craft, with works from many leading names in craft and design that chart makers’ careers from their earliest days. You’ll experience the feel of objects in your hands, enjoying a tactile encounter with a wealth of ideas, materials and processes.
Our Handling Collection includes finished and unfinished and works, as well as test pieces that give inspirational insight into makers’ ideas, experiments and learning. Our collections team will also give you an introduction to the collection and share how they care for the objects within it.
Everyone is welcome to book a visit. You don’t need any involvement in or any knowledge of contemporary craft to enjoy spending time in our Collections Store – just bring your curiosity!
Those who will benefit from booking a visit include:
- Craft hobbyists
- Makers seeking more craft knowledge and inspiration
- Craft, art or design researchers, students and writers
- Those working in or looking to work in collections care
Senior Collections and Programmes Manager Deborah Ridley with jeweller, Melanie Eddy, in Crafts Council's Collections Store Examining an object in Craft Council's Collections Store
A new place to learn about craft
Museums and galleries can be forbidding places, where engaging with works of art is restricted to looking at it through glass cases. We’ve committed to making sure everyone can touch objects from our collection. Craft and making is an inherently tactile world – so we believe this is an essential part of what we offer. You can also explore the national collection for craft online and for free at our Collections Online database.
We transformed our historic Collections Store in 2024 into a space for collections care, public access and learning. We did this as part of our Craft for the People project, thanks to the generous support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), as part of its Dynamic Collections initiative.
Objects in the Crafts Council gallery
